The Accessible Travel Framework has been developed with a view to improving accessible transport in Scotland for all disabled people.
Accessible Travel Framework
Transport Scotland, in collaboration with the Scottish Government, the transport community, and disabled people’s organisations, aims to enhance accessible travel in Scotland through the development of a 10-year plan known as the Accessible Travel Framework.
Importance of Accessible Travel
Everyone should be able to use public transport comfortably and without barriers.
However, many disabled people still feel unsupported or unable to travel. Some even avoid journeys due to these challenges.
Accessible buses, trains, taxis, and stations help people visit friends, shop, or work. Transport operators must ensure accessibility in facilities, provide information in suitable formats, and train staff to offer respectful assistance.
Vision of the Accessible Travel Framework
“All disabled people can travel with the same freedom, choice, dignity and opportunity as other citizens.”
Listening to the concerns
Some of the things disabled people told us were important:
- Ensuring that transport providers take responsibility for the completion of a journey, including across different modes of transport
- Tackling disability hate crime on and around transport u Having consistently high accessibility standards in each mode of transport going beyond basic legislative requirements
- Ensuring that all of the things relating to transport are accessible (like ticket machines)
- Getting information in the appropriate format if things go wrong during a journey
- Standardising, evaluating and making mandatory delivery of disability equality training across all transport bodies
- Being more involved in decisions on transport, both as individuals and through representative organisations
- Ensuring customer surveys and other feedback arrangements are accessible and relevant to issues affecting disabled travellers
How the vision can be achieved
Transport Scotland wants the Framework to send a message to all involved in transport that we need to work together to improve how we work with disabled people to improve services.
Outcomes
This is what disabled people, transport operators and providers, local and central Government want to achieve for Scotland:
- More successful door-to-door journeys for disabled people.
- Greater involvement of disabled people in transport planning.
- Improved staff training on accessibility needs.
- Safer travel, free from hate crime, bullying, and harassment.
Key actions
Some of the things Transport Scotland wants to do as part of the framework include:
- Look at how we can improve training by involving disabled people, including those with hidden disabilities and basic British Sign Language (BSL) phrases
- Agree on standards of service for disabled people if something goes wrong on their journey.
- Produce information which makes it easier to understand specific changes and how they benefit people with different support needs.
- Look at how transport providers currently ask their customers about their services and agree on standards for feedback. This could include mystery shopping and surveys.
- Look at how we can make it easier for disabled people to get involved with planning and decision-making with transport providers.
- Create a place where people can get accessible information about planning a journey across different types of transport. This would include buying tickets and finding out about concessions.
Accessible Travel Steering Group
The framework was co-produced by the National Transport Accessibility Steering Group (now known as Accessible Travel Steering Group). The Steering Group is made up of around 30 members who represent transport providers and disabled people’s organisations. It helps Transport Scotland to inform its annual delivery plan priorities and understand the needs of disabled travellers.
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Monitoring the Accessible Travel Framework
The framework has been monitored by the Transport Accessibility Steering Group for over 10 years, in collaboration with:
- Regional Transport Partnerships
- Community Planning Partnerships
- Transport Operators’ Customer Service Groups
The Steering Group will look at things like:
- What disabled people think about services and what kind of barriers do they experience whilst travelling
- Numbers of disabled people using buses, ferries and trains
- Working with Disabled People’s Organisations to make surveys and groups for disabled people to talk about how the plan is doing
Key documents
Accessible Travel Framework Easyread
A summary of the first national Accessible Travel Framework for Scotland Easyread (PDF).
Accessible Travel Framework Summary
A summary of Scotland’s first Accessible Travel Framework (PDF).
Delivery Plan for 2021-2022
Annual Delivery Plan, and the priorities within it, have been agreed upon in co-production with our Transport Accessibility Steering Group and its 30 strong representatives.
Delivery Plan for 2019-2020
The next steps and eight priority areas for 2019/20. It was co-produced with the 20 representative bodies which form the Scottish Transport Accessibility Steering Group.
Progress Report – 2019/2020
This report details progress made against the 2019-20 annual delivery plan for Scotland’s ten-year Accessible Travel Framework.